Free Dusk by Erin M. Leaf Page B

back warmed as he kept thrusting.
Impossibly, she realized that he was still hard. They weren’t done yet.
    “Solomon, what’s happening to us?” she asked, hands in his hair. A
strand snagged in the ring he’d given her, but he didn’t seem to notice. His
mind felt like the sun against her thoughts.
    He lifted his face. The silver specks in his eyes glowed like bits
of starlight, so bright she had to look away. It didn’t help. She could feel
him inside her mind. She knew everything about him, and she suspected he knew
everything about her, too.
    “We are pairing,” he said, as if he didn’t quite believe it
himself.
    She stared at him as his cock caressed her pussy. He slid almost
all the way out, then plunged inside again, rubbing her clit on the way in. “You
mean like Eva and Greyson?” she managed to ask.
    He kissed her and answered her with his emotions. Yes, seeped from his mind to hers and she shivered with the power of it.
    How? she asked, but when he didn’t answer, she realized she hadn’t spoken aloud. It
didn’t matter, anyway. Another orgasm trembled through her, softer and less violent,
but still overwhelming. Solomon shook with her, cock pulsing in her body. When
he went to his knees, she fell with him to the ground. He broke the fall,
cradling her in his arms.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, but Lucy wasn’t sure what he meant. She didn’t
care. Something huge tickled the edges of her mind and she looked up, confused.
    Nothing but blue skies, she thought, holding Solomon as tightly as she could. It didn’t
help. His emotions moved from satiation to dismay, and she could feel his brain
begin to weigh the consequences of what they’d done. His skin burned where it
touched hers and she closed her eyes.
    “Too late,” she murmured, tensing. Something loomed over them.
Something terrible. “Do you feel that?” She pushed at him.
    He frowned, but let her go. His half-hard erection slid from her
body and she shivered as her pussy tingled. She didn’t want to let go of him.
She didn’t want to stay. I’m so confused, she thought, looking up again.
A few puffy clouds skidded across the treetops, but the sense of doom
increased.
    “It’s huge. Something’s wrong,” she muttered, struggling to her
feet. Solomon helped her up.
    “It is impossible,” Solomon said, looking around the clearing. His
eyes flashed as he stared into the woods.
    “I need to go.” Lucy grabbed her pants and dragged them on. Leaves
were stuck to the zipper and she brushed them away. She could feel Solomon’s
worry, and his love, and something more at the back of her head, but she couldn’t
deal with that now. It’s too soon, she thought, scrubbing at her face. She
put on her shirt and buttoned it all the way to the top as if what they’d done
could be hidden with cloth.
    “Don’t go,” Solomon said, touching her arm. His energy flared
against her skin.
    She jerked away. “Something’s out there,” she said, voice rising. “Can’t
you feel it?” It felt like they were sitting beneath a giant moon about to
collapse into the planet. And the energy surging through her didn’t help. She
could feel things she’d never sensed before: the life in the trees around them.
The small, swift sparks of birds flying through the trees. The volume on her
radio was turned up way too damn high. No screaming, she told herself,
taking deep, slow breaths.
    He looked at her, then reached down and slid on his pants. “Spiders.
I sense Spiders. Echoes of them.” He rolled his shoulders, but the tension in
his spine didn’t dissipate. Lucy felt his unease and it doubled hers. “And the
Stronghold net is stronger. Much stronger.”
    Jesus. He doesn’t have any idea what’s happening, she realized, fear prickling her
spine. “You said they were gone. That we were safe.” She glanced around for her
purse and saw it crumpled near the edge of the ship. She snatched it up and
hugged it to her chest. Dust stained her pants, but